28 réponses à ce sujet

[rjshae]

The initial, North American release of Neverwinter Nights 2 was on October 31, 2006. A year from now we're coming up on the 10th anniversary of that release. Does anybody have some ideas on how to celebrate? One thought I had is a "complete" HD release for the original campaign: selecting various enhancement mods such as bug fixes, texture improvements, character reskins, better AI, and PrC packs, then releasing that in a self-contained update, along with some new improvements.

[Tchos]

Well, that sort of all-in-one pack is something that has been requested more than once in the past.  It's certainly worked well for Morrowind.

 

I would have suggested a new community project.*  I know the last one fell apart, which I'm sure would dissuade many, but I think that was a matter of management.  There were two prior community projects (the BouncyRock Halloween project, and the SoZ Holiday Expansion) that I think are both excellent games full of great content, so it's not like it couldn't be done.  But I do doubt that such an idea would have much support from the currently available modders.

 

 

* By "community project" I mean the kind like the two examples I mentioned -- a campaign in which multiple individuals contribute their own content within modules that the campaign ties together.

[MayCaesar]

I like the community project idea. Such projects need a very good management (centralized, probably) though, otherwise such projects usually fall apart in the end. But if a few people in this thread demonstrate interest in the project, we might work something out. I, for one, wouldn't mind composing a few custom music tracks for such a module.

[Tchos]

Yes, the last one didn't work out essentially because the central manager disappeared from the community, from what I saw, leaving contributors without guidance or instruction, or the final assembly.

[rjshae]

If we can come up with a project idea (and the participants can get along), I'd like to contribute.

 

I had a thought: how about we take the Neverwinter Nights Docks District from the OC and turn it into a more interesting area? There's a bunch of unused buildings and side areas where interesting stuff can be added, or side quests set up. Plus the place is rather sparsely populated; it could use a few more interesting characters.

[kamal_]

If we can come up with a project idea (and the participants can get along), I'd like to contribute.

 

I had a thought: how about we take the Neverwinter Nights Docks District from the OC and turn it into a more interesting area? There's a bunch of unused buildings and side areas where interesting stuff can be added, or side quests set up. Plus the place is rather sparsely populated; it could use a few more interesting characters.

Honestly, adding sidequest stuff to the OC sounds boring, probably because I'm not a fan of the OC. The "Complete HD" update with bug fixes, textures, prcs etc. sounds better, if only because people still show up here asking for OC fixpacks so I can see where that would be useful as an anniversary present. Most of those things are already out there, and it would just be a matter of packaging that stuff up.

[Arkalezth]

Not a modder here, just a lowly player's opinion:

Honestly, adding sidequest stuff to the OC sounds boring

 
Agreed. Personally, I'd very much prefer something like a new module or a mod I can use anywhere, rather than improving or remaking this or that in the OC. There are probably some OC players that would appreciate it, but frankly, if all the "10th Anniversary Community Project" does is adding a couple of quests or improving textures in the OC, well... let's just say that I wouldn't be terribly excited about it. I guess that'd be OK for a different game without hundreds of modules and PWs, but for NWN2... meh.
 
Maybe a silly question, and some might prefer to let it die, but couldn't that old community module still be finished, even if it ended up being somewhat different? I mean, the basic idea was already there, and some contributors may still have their areas stored somewhere.

[MayCaesar]

The problem I see with modifying the original campaign is that few people play it any more, and even fewer will want to replay just because of a few new zones and characters.

 

I'd rather prefer something standalone, some new campaign, with original plot. Or maybe new assets like models or visual effects - although I am not very good at these things and probably wouldn't be of much help.

[rjshae]

No OC then? Hmm... okay, well let me throw another thought out there. One of the old modules I worked on for a little while was to be based on the Moonsea region. For that, I was going to put together an OM so the PC could journey between the adventure areas. I had planned to include the Mysteries of the Moonsea content, and set up a system of ship travel between the cities. Unfortunately it got put on the back burner, and so it's just been sitting around for a couple of years now.

 

Here it is, my 70% complete OM of the Moonsea region:

 

 

The stuff at the lower left just needs finishing off: it's mostly forest and plains. If I finished off the map, would that be of interest as a working area?

[Tchos]

Maybe a silly question, and some might prefer to let it die, but couldn't that old community module still be finished, even if it ended up being somewhat different? I mean, the basic idea was already there, and some contributors may still have their areas stored somewhere.

 

Actually, that's true...  If I could get my hands on all of the materials that were completed, I could put them together.  I know how to merge all that stuff, and how to make things work together, including the journals, which I understand was a problem in the Holiday special.

 

I wouldn't dismiss out of hand the idea of adding things to the OC, but it is a bit of a chore to play new story mods in games like Dragon Age: Origins or the Elder Scrolls games that add stuff the main campaign, because the things are pretty long and I really don't like repeatedly playing old content to get to the new stuff.

 

That overland map looks good.  Would be good to link together modules, if that's how things go.  Though I understand the unfinished project was for a different region, I don't know how much the completed contributors made it region-specific.

[kamal_]

That map would be cool with the overland map ship travel stuff, so you can sail around as you like (which is also a nice show off of community content). You could take Crimmor and make it just about any city with some renaming of areas, that gives you a full city already built with various factions already present. Even if the full city wasnt used for questing, it can exist for players who just wanted to walk the streets and explore. I was asked a few times if I'd planned on making a more traditional adventure set there anyway.

[rjshae]

That map would be cool with the overland map ship travel stuff, so you can sail around as you like (which is also a nice show off of community content). You could take Crimmor and make it just about any city with some renaming of areas, that gives you a full city already built with various factions already present. Even if the full city wasnt used for questing, it can exist for players who just wanted to walk the streets and explore. I was asked a few times if I'd planned on making a more traditional adventure set there anyway.

 

Yes, I was sort of thinking along those lines: Moonsea as a semi-open world setting with all the wandering monsters set up, then you can add as many local side quest areas as you wanted. (I did have a plot in mind to go with it.)

 

Your Crimmor perhaps sounds a bit like Mulmaster; a city belonging to the Zhentarim that is riddled with crime.

[kamal_]

Yes, I was sort of thinking along those lines: Moonsea as a semi-open world setting with all the wandering monsters set up, then you can add as many local side quest areas as you wanted. (I did have a plot in mind to go with it.)

 

Your Crimmor perhaps sounds a bit like Mulmaster; a city belonging to the Zhentarim that is riddled with crime.

I'm not familiar with the Moonsea area so if you say it's like Mulmaster, ok. I set Crimmor up as a "realistic/lived in" medieval city, dirty with winding roads, alleys and such. That doesn't mean it has to be an evil city or a good city, just an antidote to the cities people tend to build that are more orderly when that wasn't generally the case in real medieval history.

 

In any case, I'd imagine whatever plot was decided on would probably include entering a city at some point, so I offered up my city to save a bunch of building time.

[PJ156]

I think the com project failed due to many issues and I would not join anything similar again. The principle reason I think was scope. Even well organized, it was too big to bring to a conclusion which coordinated the disparate ideas of the contributors.

 

An OM with no fixed plot that allows the modder to put something in which interests them would work better and fewer people need be at the helm to bring the whole thing together. Some thing like that I would be interested in. 

 

The greatest strength of this project is, assuming someone is happy to maintain the project, the gift need not stop giving if players add other small module to the whole as time goes by. The tenth anniversary gift could become a longer legacy project for all int he community to add to?

 

PJ

[BartjeD]

Its a cool idea to work on a community pack, perhaps incorporate the Official Campaign as part of a grander adventure which ties several community modules together. That gives you room for ambition.

 

You could add a module focussing on large-scale battles with the Undead Armies of the Shadow King, as well as a module for a good EVIL ending. Also consider expanding on the missing Knight-Captain and the circumstances his eventual return before Mask of the Betrayer. There's a lot of room for creativity if we take the original campaign apart and improve upon it. I think Obsidian would feel honored!

 

The essential thing is to have a central platform like github where you can manage the resources as a team. Divide them into chunks for each contributor with agreed upon tie-in points and boundaries, and auto-merge TLK files and 2das (campaign framework files) for the entire project on an ongoing basis.

 

Definitely go HD, and definitely merge community content, new spells, new feats, new PRCs and base-classes, new companions, new tilesets, new monsters and NPCs!

[rjshae]

Well this has given me some motivation to finish up the Moonsea OM so I can at least post it. Most of the work will be in populating the High Forest placeables, which is a little tedious so I'll probably do it in spurts. I've already posted my rendition of New Verdigris, so that can be linked in. Plus I've got a few other small areas partly completed; mostly near Phlan.

[PJ156]

Just as food for thought. 

 

The last project had issues with content. We ended up with a 2 GB Hak iirc, most of which was either not used or contained material used just once.

 

How about a new project only having a set of 2da files. All the cc goes in the module folders. Individual builders can add the content they want without swelling the core module (the OM) to bloated proportions.

 

Or perhaps a core content build pack? Then the module can be used for specific tilesets or placeable items to be added. The core pack could then be cc related to the area. Perhaps a clothing pack etc?

 

No perfect solutions but perhaps a conversation starter?

 

PJ

[rjshae]

Well, for what it's worth, I haven't added any custom content to the Moonsea module. Although I was planning to eventually; that was part of the reason for some of the OM content in the CSP. But I'll leave it vanilla stock for this build.

[FaerzressSparkles]

I always wanted a continuation for my SoZ party. I felt cheated by the end of SoZ, my party had nothing to do after killing that Herald of Zehir. I would be up for starting a team to develop a higher-level SoZ type of module. I like your OM for the Moonsea region. My campaign idea was to do some other area of Faerun and then perhaps have the other OM be in the Underdark. Or I was thinking of Chult as one OM, then heading to the Dalelands to finish the story and get those characters to level 30. Either way, I would potentially be up for doing such a module with a team. If the format was similar to SoZ with a bunch of small areas, it may be a manageable project.

[rjshae]

I'm not sure whether a Moonsea OM campaign would be good for a high-level campaign, although it could have a few such encounters scattered about in various cities and odd corners. But yes, an additional OM or two of the Dalelands would allow a mod builder more choice in where to take their campaign. They could potentially even build the entire Pool of Radiance GoldBox series.

[rjshae]

Okay, here's a long overdue update.

 

A few weeks back I did a bunch more work on this Moonsea OM, but unfortunately I ran into a significant performance problem. It's to the point where the area takes forever to load and the frame rate gradually grinds to a near halt. Alas, it's pretty much unuseable as it is. 

 

I think the problem may be that I just added way too much grass and it's chunking away trying to to animate it all (even though you can's see most of it beneath the forest canopy). Clearly I need to go back and delete large swaths of grass now, which is too bad because I think it really enhances the forest floor.

 

The other alternative would be to split the map in half. But I don't really want to do that, and it would take a whole bunch of work to accomplish at this point.

 

I did have the notion of modifying the textures for the "Trees {C01/2 Canopy MAP [TINT]}" placeables to add a layer of grass along the ground, but that would mean adding a hak file, which I was trying to avoid.

[kamal_]

Okay, here's a long overdue update.

 

A few weeks back I did a bunch more work on this Moonsea OM, but unfortunately I ran into a significant performance problem. It's to the point where the area takes forever to load and the frame rate gradually grinds to a near halt. Alas, it's pretty much unuseable as it is. 

 

I think the problem may be that I just added way too much grass and it's chunking away trying to to animate it all (even though you can's see most of it beneath the forest canopy). Clearly I need to go back and delete large swaths of grass now, which is too bad because I think it really enhances the forest floor.

 

The other alternative would be to split the map in half. But I don't really want to do that, and it would take a whole bunch of work to accomplish at this point.

 

I did have the notion of modifying the textures for the "Trees {C01/2 Canopy MAP [TINT]}" placeables to add a layer of grass along the ground, but that would mean adding a hak file, which I was trying to avoid.

send it to me

[Tchos]

What about placeables casting shadows?  Have you tried setting the placeables not to cast or receive shadows (at least ones that don't strictly need to)?  That could improve the frame rate if you haven't already done that.

[rjshae]

Okay, I've got a couple of things to try: removing shadows and drastically lowering the number of positional sounds. Thanks guys.

 

Ed.: It did a bunch of trimming and shadow removal, but it's still a beast that takes forever to load on my older PC. Hmm.

[kamal_]

iirc there was a plugin that would give you an estimated load time for an area. I can't find it though.

 

Have you tried comparing load times to the SoZ overlands?